Bacio Bacche
by Aron
Summary: When someone comes sliding down your chimney at Christmas, you'd expect it to be Santa Claus, right? Well, in Anabel's experience, that isn't always the case... but what ends up happening speaks for itself. KasibShipping, one-shot. Happy holidays!


**BACIO BACCHE**

Snow was gently falling on the already white ground, sweeping sheets spreading over the dew-laden grass and settling over the many branches of trees in the neighbouring woods. The soft, fluffy flakes enshrouded bushes and rocks, turning the landscape into a mix of mottled white and green, the patches of snow seeming to reflect the clouds hovering in the sky, surrounding slivers of blue that were peeking out from behind their own covers.

In the centre of this desert of white was a lone cottage nestled between two clusters of trees, standing at the fringes of the snowy woodland. Two chimneys in the corners of the roof stood proudly alongside the farthest-reaching branches of the closer trees, and the parts of the sloping, segmented scaffolding that weren't hidden by snow glinted out with a rich, navy blue.

Just to the side from the front door, a large vertical window offered a glimpse of movement in the otherwise peaceful setting, a slight figure flitting from side to side as a thin ribbon dotted with spines was hoisted above the line of vision that the window provided. As it turned out, the spines were little more than a string of lights, each one glowing with a different colour as they lined the walls of a spacious lounge room.

"Finally, they're all up…" said a female voice, wiping the back of a slender hand across her brow as her lilac-coloured hair jangled about. She looked around at the room, smiling as a row of bright lights winked at her every few inches along the wall, and with a proud nod of accomplishment, she switched off the power to the Christmas decorations, watching as they slowly died out, and she gave a whoop of delight.

Dusting off her hands, she flopped back onto a cushy armchair, leaning her head back onto the comfortable fabric as she closed her eyes. It was Christmas Day, the last holiday of the year, and yet here she was, without another soul in the house. Her parents had travelled north for the day to visit one of her relatives, and because of her duties to the Battle Tower, she had been forced to stay behind and tend to the challengers who came by to try and win her Ability Symbol.

_Why would they even come here at this time of year? _thought the Salon Maiden, her brow creasing as she slowly tapped the heels of her bare feet against the ground. _Surely they've got families to spend time with… friends to hang out with—_ her eyes swung around the room again, settling on the empty fireplace next to the window, _hey, who am I to talk? I'm stuck here on my own while Mother and Father are in the Sinnoh region…_

"Well, I guess there's no point in moping," she told herself, pushing herself off the armchair and walking over to a large cardboard box in the corner of the room. Stuffed rather tightly into the box, along with several bright red baubles, was a large, golden five-pointed star to go on top of the Christmas tree. With a few grunts and several uses of choice vocabulary, she managed to pry the star free from the box and carried it towards the tree, standing proudly near the centre of the room. She had no idea why she'd put the box so far away, but she cast the thought aside as she gently put the star at the foot of the tree.

The tree was decked out in all its glory, almost completely covered by trails of red and gold tinsel and huge red baubles – identical to the ones in the cardboard box – that were the size of grapefruit. Tiny plastic icicles were twinkling from random spots on the tree's lush green needles, and little golden figurines of birds hung from branches, held in place by loops of string as they slowly swung back and forth. The only thing missing from the towering work of art was the star atop its peak, which almost reached the modest chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

The faint sound of birds hopping on the rooftops brought a smile to Anabel's face as she grabbed a large wooden ladder from next to the tree and moved it around, bringing it a little further away from the chandelier. Tucking the star underneath her arm, she climbed to the top and locked her feet in the frame, leaning towards the tree as she stretched her arm and tried to slip the star onto the top, praying that the baggy green shirt she was wearing wouldn't get caught on the needle-like leaves.

"Come on—get on there—!" she grunted, slowly inching even further across from the ladder as she tried to get the hole in the star to line up with the topmost branch, and with a final push, it slotted into place. "Yes—!"

_CRASH!_

Something huge and round burst out of the fireplace and landed in a sooty heap on the ground, the sound scaring the wits out of Anabel as she screamed and fell off the ladder. Only her quick thinking stopped her from hitting the ground head-first, her hands clutching wildly at the chandelier, but her swinging feet connected with the tree and sent it toppling over, sending tinsel and pine needles everywhere.

Anabel stood—or, rather, hung—in shock as the blackened object on the floor suddenly uncurled itself, and her eyes shot even wider open as she realised that it was a person, coughing violently and shaking their head free of soot.

"Geez—!" spluttered the person, whose voice told Anabel that it was a boy, "you really need to clean that thing out once in a while—!" he coughed again and wiped a layer of ash from his face, revealing a set of hazel-coloured eyes that twinkled mischievously at the Frontier Brain.

"_Ari_?!" she exclaimed, her surprise almost making her lose her grip on the chandelier. "What are you doing here?!" she demanded, scowling furiously at him as he got to his feet and started smacking his clothes free of soot.

"Well, I knew that your family was going to be away for the holiday, so I figured I'd come by and keep you company!" he answered with a smile, showing a set of blackened teeth from the ash in the chimney.

"Oh, is that so…?" Anabel muttered suspiciously, her eyes narrowing as his smile faltered. "And just what were you planning on _doing_ while you were over here, hmm?"

"Well, usually at Christmas, people get together and exchange presents, eat a dinner, have friendly discussions with each other… that kind of thing," he chuckled, and she rolled her eyes; he clearly wasn't following.

"Why aren't you with your family or your other friends?" she pressed, her eyes flicking between him and the floor below, still a fair way down from her perspective.

"Mum's—with friends of her own at Ecruteak," he shrugged, "and the only other person I'd have Christmas with… he's in Cerulean City to spend the day with his brother—" he shrugged again, and Anabel gave a slow nod, knowing who he was talking about.

"Besides," he added, walking forwards and looking up at her, "it'd be pretty poor form of me to leave you _hanging_ here all by yourself," he snickered.

For the second time in a minute, Anabel rolled her eyes. He just couldn't help himself. She dropped down onto the ground and managed to stay on her feet, getting her balance before scowling at him again, and she turned around to look forlornly at the Christmas tree that had been completely stripped of its decorations after she'd accidentally knocked it over.

"Oh, just look at this mess…" she sighed, kneeling down and scooping up a bauble as it rolled past her feet. "And after I spent so much time getting it all pretty by myself…" She stared at the shiny red surface of the ball, seeing her own face reflected back at her.

"Whining isn't going to solve it, though," laughed Ari, grabbing the tree and heaving it upright. "Wow, that's heavy… anyways, I'll grab all the baubles and tinsel and everything, and we can put them back where they were before! You can tell me where to stick them up," he suggested, picking up a ribbon of gold tinsel and curling it around his shoulders.

"It looks good on you," Anabel joked, tossing the bauble to him. "But I'll handle the decorations. If you want to be useful, do you think you could make some tea for me?" she asked sweetly.

"Eh, saves me having to use the ladder," he smirked, grabbing the tinsel and roughly throwing it onto Anabel's head. He strolled down the hallway and into the kitchen, fishing through cupboards until he found a small kettle, then filled it with cold water from the sink. He always found it odd that Anabel's family boiled water the traditional way instead of buying an electric kettle; perhaps they were a little more environmentally aware than everyone else.

_Well, whatever it is, I'm sure not complaining,_ he thought, turning on a stove hotplate and leaving the kettle to heat up. He leant back on the kitchen counter and twiddled his thumbs, listening to the jingling and rustling sounds from the lounge room as Anabel redecorated the tree. _I could probably use a cup of tea myself,_ he smiled, scouring the cupboards yet again for her china collection, and he snatched up a pair of teacups and saucers, carefully laying them out on the bench. The last thing he needed was to break something of hers and land himself in hot water.

"Speaking of hot water…" Ari muttered, looking at the kettle, "hurry up and boil!" A loud, scraping rustle sounded from outside the kitchen, and Ari, his hand reaching for the kettle, jerked upwards in surprise as his eyes shot towards the window on the other side of the room. "What was that?" he wondered, walking over to the window. "It can't have been something smaller than a deer…" he told himself, and he chose to investigate things further.

Slipping out of the kitchen and silently creeping down the hallway, he unlocked the front door and stepped out into the wintry outdoors, bringing his arms up around to hug his chest as the chilly air penetrated through his clothes. He scanned his surroundings for any sign of the source of the noise, then slinked towards the side of the house, making sure to keep out of sight of the lounge room window.

As he cast his gaze towards the narrow space between house and woods, a large creature broke free from the line of snowy trees and came into view. It was, as Ari had thought, about the size of a deer, but the thing that surprised him was that it looked remarkably like a deer, with a pair of curved antlers framing a slightly drooping face and a pair of dull grey eyes.

"A Stantler, eh?" he said, smiling weakly. "That solves that mystery," he laughed, taking a step forwards and beckoning for the Big Horn Pokémon with an outstretched hand. The Stantler saw the movement and shrank backwards, bowing its head as the small black balls in the centre of its horns started to twitch.

"Hey, there's no need to be so timid, little girl," he told the Pokémon, moving a little slower as he crept towards it. On hearing the words, Stantler's head seemed to shoot upwards, sniffing the air as though sensing danger, but a moment later it trotted towards Ari like it had never been scared of the boy. "There, good girl," he corrected himself, gently patting the wild Stantler on the head as its put its nose inside his jacket.

"Oop—" he quickly tried to back away, but the Pokémon clamped down on the jacket, refusing to let go. "Come on, you don't want to go searching through there—" he put his hands on Stantler's cheeks and tried to move its head away, but it dug its head in even further. "Oi!" he shouted, and suddenly the Pokémon withdrew, although now it was holding the corner of a small brown package in its mouth.

"Hey, I need that!" he exclaimed, but the Stantler bolted away, deftly weaving between the trees. "Come on, give it back—!" he roared, "it's a Christmas present!" he added, not even caring that the wild Pokémon couldn't understand him as set off through the woods in pursuit.

* * *

Anabel grinned proudly as she attached the last red bauble to an upper branch of the tree, standing back on the ladder to admire the speed and efficiency of her work. The tree was complete again, if not for the star lying placidly on the ground next to the ladder. But she was going to have Ari do that job after he'd finished making her tea, so she wasn't in any hurry.

She cocked her head to the side and stepped down from the ladder as the thought occurred to her; where _was_ her tea? It had been a fairly long time since Ari had gone into the kitchen to make her drink, and he still wasn't back yet. Wondering what was taking so long, she jogged into the kitchen, and her suspicions rose as soon as she saw that the kettle was boiling and Ari was missing.

"Ari?" she called out, noticing the twin teacups on the bench. "Ari, where are you?" she asked again, popping her head back into the hallway and shouting out his name again, but to no avail. "Lazy bum, can't even get my tea ready," she grumbled, taking the kettle off the boil.

Since the water would take a little longer to cool down so she could drink it, she walked to the front door and turned the doorknob to check that it was locked. To her increasing surprise, the door swung smoothly open, greeting her with a wave of frigid air, but she cautiously stepped outside and shut the door behind her.

"Ari?! Are you out here?!" she yelled, looking left and right for a sign of him, but it was only when she looked down that she saw a set of shoeprints leading around to the side of the house. Things were definitely getting weirder by the moment; he'd disappeared without saying a word, creeping outside for some unknown reason, and he hadn't fixed her tea!

_Hmm… maybe he's trying to scare me by going down the chimney again…_ she thought dryly, turning towards her house and slowly walking backwards. _I wouldn't put it past him,_ she added, but all she could see on the roof was snow, snow, and more snow; even the blue tiling was covered with white. In fact, the only thing she could make out amongst the snow was the weather vane above the front door.

Grumbling quietly to herself, she followed his tracks in the snow, heading around to the side of the house, but they suddenly came into contact with another set of footprints, these ones of a large animal or Pokémon. Now she was getting frustrated.

"_Rim rim riim riiim!_" chimed a high-pitched voice above her head, and Anabel's head jerked upwards to see a lone Cherrim gliding down towards her from the roof's gutter, carrying a branch of white berries in its hands.

"Hello there, little Cherrim," she said curiously, holding out her palms to catch the small Pokémon. "What's that you've got there?" she asked, seeing the branch in closer detail.

"_Mistletoe, of course!_" said Cherrim brightly, spinning around on the spot and waving the branch about. "_It helps foster love and friendship. It's glorious, glorious!_"

"Well, it's good to see that one of us is keeping themselves so happy at the moment," Anabel giggled.

"_You need this more than I do!_" Cherrim squeaked, dropping the mistletoe into her hands. "_I hope you're happier with it!_" it smiled, and Anabel returned the smile as she pocketed the branch.

"Say, can I ask you something?" she said, an idea coming to mind, and the Pokémon nodded enthusiastically. "Did you happen to see a boy come by here? About my height, maybe with a large Pokémon?" she asked, gesturing with her free hand to try and get her point across.

"_I surely did!_" nodded the Blossom Pokémon, jumping up and down in Anabel's hand. "_He was talking to a Stantler before it ran away. He chased after it, and they went into the woods together!_" it told her, and Anabel's mouth fell slightly open at the news.

"So let me get this straight…" she muttered, rubbing her temple. "Ari came around here, talked to a Stantler out of the blue, then started running after it into the woods?"

"_If the boy I saw is a boy named Ari!_" smiled Cherrim, completely oblivious to Anabel's exasperated expression.

"Okay then…? Umm, well, thank you very much," she said gratefully, patting Cherrim on the head with two fingers and moving her arm towards the trees. The Grass-type happily jumped onto the nearest tree branch, swinging its petals to and fro, and Anabel giggled again at the display, shaking her head and smiling as she walked back to the front of the house and headed inside.

* * *

"Come on, where are you, eh…?" Ari muttered, searching through the trees for a sign of the elusive Stantler. "Here, Stantler-Stantler-Stantler-Stantler…!" he cooed, darting this way and that to try and find the Pokémon, and he caught a lucky break when he briefly spotted the familiar set of antlers between a pair of trees just alongside a large wooden fence. "There you are!" he whispered triumphantly, skulking through the woods. It was a good thing that the snow quietened his footsteps, too; he'd be able to sneak up on the Stantler and grab it before it could notice.

_But it just __had__ to steal a breakable gift…_ he muttered mentally. _It just __had__ to make it so that I couldn't scare it away with my Pokémon and pick it up off the ground._

Bringing himself out of his thoughts, he looked around and cursed when he saw that his lack of focus had let the Stantler slip away, no doubt over the fence. He gritted his teeth and ran the rest of the way towards the fence, a wide grin cracking onto his face when he saw what lay beyond the wooden barrier. It was an orchard full of large trees, each one laden with innumerable amounts of large purple berries tipped with finger-like fronds.

Kasib berries. The thought made Ari almost whoop with happiness when he saw row after row of Kasib trees, half-covered in snow. Quickly looking at the snow near his feet, he made out a few sparse hoof-prints either side of the fence and knew that his guess was right. Wasting no time, he put his hands on the topmost railing and vaulted the fence, landing softly on the other side with a puff of white.

"Alright, you sneaky little Stantler," he said, clumsily getting to his feet, "let's see where you've gone—" he cast his eyes downwards, and almost shouted out with disdain when he saw that the falling snow had already covered up any sign of his escapee's tracks. "Oh well…" he shrugged, pulling out a Poké Ball, "Ledian, find that Stantler for me!" he whispered, and a large ladybug of a Pokémon burst out of the ball with a white flash, its wings whirring as its four arms jabbed playfully at the air in front of its Trainer's face.

"_Ley ley!_" trilled Ledian, flying up above the level of the trees and beginning to circle over the orchard. As he watched his Bug-type Pokémon disappear over a tree, Ari was struck with an idea, and he rushed to the nearest Kasib berry he could see. He checked to make sure that no-one was watching, and he hastily plucked the berry from its branch, holding it to his nose and smelling the sweet aroma that it gave off, before reaching up and forcefully shaking the tree's branches.

"Perfect," he muttered, as several berries came loose and fell onto the snow. He quickly picked out the ten largest ones amongst the berries scattered on the ground and put them to the side, before stripping off his black jacket and tying it around his waist, leaving him shivering slightly with only his red shirt covering his torso.

_I hope this works… or I'm gonna look like such an idiot,_ he thought, scooping up the berries into his hands. He closed his eyes and turned his head away, and crushed the berries into pulp, purple liquid oozing out from between his fingers and staining the snow. Moving quickly, he rubbed a juice-covered left hand over his opposite arm, dropping the berries into this hand before repeating the same manoeuvre with his right.

Once he had finished swathing his arms, he dabbed the last of the juice over his cheeks, shaking his hands wildly before wiping them off in the snow. _That should do it_, he told himself, holding his arms out like a scarecrow and slowly moving through the snowy orchard, whistling loudly to try and get the hidden Stantler's attention. For several long, quiet minutes, he heard nothing but the sound of his voice, and the soft patter of his shoes against the fluffy snow as he worked his way between the trees.

As he passed by what seemed to be the fiftieth row of trees, a loud scuttling erupted somewhere off to his left, and he slowly turned around to see a faint shape moving between the brown pillars of bark. A moment later, his Ledian zoomed over from the same area, pointing animatedly with a pair of hands, and he followed his Pokémon towards the afternoon sun, which was slowly sinking near the mountains that marked the Tohjo Falls.

"_Le-le-le-le-le-le-le…_" hummed Ledian in a sing-song voice, flying a few feet in front of Ari as they made their way towards the mountains, and the latter sighed with relief when he caught a full glimpse of the wild Big Horn Pokémon, still clutching the small brown package in its mouth.

"Stay out of sight, Ledian," he told his Pokémon, who nodded and flitted up to a snowy tree. "Come on, Stantler… come on…" he willed, moving his arms through the air to try and waft the scent of the Kasib berries towards it. Sure enough, the Stantler caught the sweet smell and looked his way, pawing at the ground. Ari crossed his fingers and nodded his head, his eyes unblinking as they stared at the Pokémon's, and after a few tense moments of waiting, he uncurled his left hand, showing a lone berry in his palm.

_Eat it…_ he thought, inching towards Stantler as the latter did the same to him. _Come on… you can do it…_ "Go on," he nodded, gently tossing the berry about in his hand, and the Stantler promptly dropped his package onto the ground, being careful not to step on it as it trotted forwards and started eating the little gift that Ari was holding. "'Atta girl," he smiled, patting the Pokémon's head as he leant down and snatched the small brown item from the ground.

"Oh, that's a relief…" he sighed, a weary smile on his face as he slipped the package into the side pocket of his pants. "Okay, Ledian! You can—stop, that tickles!—" he giggled as Stantler began licking at his fingers, "Ledian—! Take us back to Anabel's house—that _really_ tickles—_haha_!"

"_Ley, ley, ley, ley…_" hummed Ledian, buzzing away through the air as it led its hysterical Trainer towards the cottage, the wild Stantler still licking Ari's hand.

* * *

It was nearly night-time when Ari found the cottage again; even with the help of his trusty Ledian, he hadn't realised how far into the woods he'd ventured, and the orchard had always seemed a lot closer to Anabel's house before. _Oh well, no point crying over spilt MooMoo Milk…_ he shrugged, gritting his teeth and wincing expectantly as he tried the front door. Mercifully, it was unlocked, and he opened it inch by inch to try and make as little noise as possible, shushing Stantler with his free hand as he gestured for it to stay outside.

_Okay, Ari, just explain to Anabel what happened, and she's not going to knock your block off,_ he told himself, creeping on tiptoe now. _Not like she's going to do that, but she __does__ love her tea,_ he added with a quiet chuckle, and he turned around to close the door, only for Stantler to trot through into the house, completely ignoring his earlier signal. "Stantler, I told you to stay outside!" he hissed, his voice a whisper, but the Big Horn Pokémon merely gave him a blank stare and a seemingly surprised grunt in return.

"Well, I guess it can't be helped," he murmured, closing the door as quietly as he could and slowly moving towards the hallway.

"_Mehhh,_" bleated Stantler loudly, making Ari cringe in horror as footsteps echoed from the lounge room.

"Quick, hide!" Ari hissed, shooing the Pokémon towards the side, but a loud shriek quickly confirmed his fears, and as he turned around, he was met with the startling image of a flabbergasted Anabel barely inches from his face, her eyes bulging as she saw the wild Stantler in her front room. "Relax, Ana, it's not a big deal," he said nonchalantly, smacking a hand on her shoulder.

"I don't normally have a problem with wild Pokémon, Ari, but—!" she waved a hand towards Stantler, who simply turned its head, "if my parents find out that I let one run through the house, I'm going to be in more trouble than that time I knocked Brandon down the flight of stairs…!"

"Yeah, you told me about that, it was a funny story," he said, smiling at the thought, but he quickly wavered under the ferocity of the glare she shot at him. "Like I said, Ana, relax! I befriended her in the Kasib orchard after I met her just outside your house," he told her, and she furrowed her brow as she remembered what the Cherrim had said to her.

"Why'd you chase it through the woods, though?" she asked, folding her arms and looking inquiringly at him. This time it was Ari whose brow was furrowed, as he turned around and eyed her just as suspiciously as she was looking at him.

"How do you know I _chased_ it through the woods, eh?" he questioned, and Anabel's face momentarily scrunched up in frustration. "Let me guess… a wild Pokémon told you? A wild Pokémon _like this Stantler_?" he added knowingly, and Stantler conveniently pawed at the carpet.

"A Cherrim, but I get your point," she said, somewhat begrudgingly; why did he always have to be right? "Still, it's a wild Pokémon in my parent's house, and I'm not in the clear. So, if you want me to feel better about it, you can help me put the star on the Christmas tree," she added, pointing a finger at him, and he held up his hands in surrender as he and Stantler followed her into the lounge room.

"What's that smell…?" she asked, sniffing at the air as she turned on the chandelier's lights.

"That'd probably be the Kasib berries," chuckled Ari, sheepishly scratching his head. "Y'know, from the orchard."

"What did you do, eat a whole bucket of them?" she wondered aloud, snickering slightly, and Ari stuck his tongue out at her back as she bent down and grabbed the star.

"Close, but you're way off," he laughed, but the laugh became a groan as Anabel shoved the star into his chest, his hands scrabbling over it as he tried to keep it aloft. "How about you put it on, and I hold the ladder?" he offered, holding the star at arm's length, and she looked incredulously at him. "Hey, if I'm the one on the ladder, that Stantler is probably gonna try and jump me, so it'd be better if she did that on ground level, right?" he reasoned.

"Whatever," caved Anabel, snatching up the star and climbing the ladder. At that moment, she was severely reminded of that small group of kids in school that could mysteriously talk their way out of anything. Ari was one of them, and she knew he could probably become a politician if he wasn't so focused on raising Pokémon. "You holding it?" she reminded him, and he lazily looked up at her, seemingly distracted by the lights on the chandelier.

"Yeah, I've got it," he mumbled, holding firmly onto the frame, and she rolled her eyes as she climbed to the top and leaned towards the tree with the star in hand. It didn't really surprise him that she put up with him sometimes, even if he did have his moments, but there was something about the situation at that exact second that struck him as odd. Maybe she'd been burning incense or something to keep away the Kasib smell, but there was definitely something different in the air.

As his eyes drifted, he spotted something odd in one of the brackets of the chandelier; hidden between the bright, glowing lights was a small cluster of branches, each one holding a bunch of white berries. _Ah, mistletoe…_ he realised, tilting his head as his gaze flickered between the plant and Anabel. _Nah… _he told himself, chuckling at a thought that occurred to him.

"What's so funny down there?" Anabel asked, at full stretch as she, once again, tried to slot the star in place.

"The mistletoe," he replied, nodding his head towards the branches. "I'm surprised you put it up there, considering I brought a wild Pokémon into the house," he added.

"I didn't put any mistletoe up, Ari," she muttered, her eyes swivelling down towards him for a brief second before focusing back on the task at hand. "You must be imagining things."

"I can see it right there, on the chandelier!" he shouted, still laughing. "You might've stuck it up there, or it might've flown out of your hands while you were _hanging around_ earlier, but it's there!"

"The only thing flying out of my hands when you crashed down my chimney was _this_—!" she pretended to drop the golden star on his head, looking irritably at him as she remembered the incident. "So I don't know what you're talking about!" she added vehemently.

"I'm talking about the three big branches of white berries sitting on the chandelier!"

_The chandelier?!_ Anabel thought; he had to be playing a prank on her. Knowing her curiosity wouldn't let it go, she shifted herself and her gaze towards it, squinting and searching amongst the light for a sign of green and white. "I'm telling you, there's nothing there…!" she yelled, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You _are_ trying to prank me, aren't you?" she said accusingly.

"No!" Ari fired, indignant. "Are you?!" he retorted, letting go of the ladder and marching around to stand directly under the chandelier. "See, there it is—!" he pointed straight up, "right in the middle; three branches, ten—fifteen—twenty-three berries!" he counted, looking imploringly at her.

"You're crazy," she muttered, shaking her head, but she squinted again and leant towards the chandelier, trying to make out the supposed mistletoe branches that he was somehow seeing with perfect clarity.

Unfortunately for Anabel, the change in weight caused the ladder to wobble violently, and she only had time to throw the star to the side before she was falling towards the ground, crashing onto an unsuspecting Ari and bringing them both smacking into the carpet with a loud thud, the ladder following close behind with a sharp thwack as it missed their heads by a hair.

"You—" Ari groaned, trying to push himself up with his hands, only to realise that Anabel was lying on most of his body, "you okay… Ana?" he panted, trying to regain his breath after being winded in the fall. "Hey, Ana?" he repeated, shaking her shoulder, and she slowly raised her head, her eyes unfocused and her fringe thrown untidily over her face.

"Huh?" she murmured, blinking stupidly.

"I said '_are you okay?'_," he laughed.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, dismissing his concerns with a wave of her hand. "Good thing you broke my fall," she added lightly.

"Well, hopefully your fall was the only thing that got broken in all that," he said, a little apprehensively as he slipped a hand into the pocket of his pants despite Anabel's quizzical gaze. After drawing out the moment a little longer by fishing around, he pulled out the same brown package that the Stantler had stolen from him outside the kitchen, holding it tenderly as he put it in a speechless Anabel's hands.

"Merry Christmas, Anabel," he said softly.

"Oh, you didn't have to do that…" Anabel whispered, her eyes shimmering, and Ari watched on – slightly uncomfortably, due to her still sitting on him – as she unwrapped her present. There, cushioned delicately inside a square of foam, was a small glass bottle filled with a lavender-coloured liquid, sealed in by a small lid made of black plastic. "Perfume…?" she asked, her face cracking into a warm smile as her eyes flickered to him.

"Yep," he nodded, with a small shrug of his shoulders. "Perfume."

"You always are a sucker for giving a girl what she likes, aren't you?" she giggled, turning the bottle over in her hands.

"Go on, try it out," he grinned, and Anabel squirted a bit of the perfume onto her wrist, bringing it up to her face and giving it a sniff. "What do you think?" he asked nervously.

"It smells really good…" she murmured, closing her eyes. "_Really_ good…"

"Yeah, it's really something, isn't it?" he chuckled, leaning back on his hands, but she opened her eyes again as something clicked in the back of her mind.

"Hang on… it smells like—" she looked at Ari, who gave a knowing smirk and nodded her head, and her mouth fell comically open as she stared at the perfume bottle. "No way!" she exclaimed, her eyes as wide as saucers.

"Yes way," he said, his smirk widening by the second. "That, right there in your hot little hand, is a perfume distilled from Kasib berries in the very same orchard that I befriended our brand new friend, Stantler," he added, receiving a hoof-beat on the ground from Stantler in agreement as the latter stood at the entrance to the lounge room.

"No wonder it seemed so familiar," she thought aloud. "When you came through the door, you smelt like you'd been swimming in the stuff—" she looked up from her present and met Ari with a sweet smile, "thank you, Ari. It's a wonderful present," she said, reaching forwards and putting her arms around his shoulders for a hug, which he gladly returned.

He was thankful that she liked his gift, because he would've seemed like a poor friend if he'd come all the way from his hometown to hand her a shoddy present that she didn't think was nice. His eyes swung up to the ceiling, saying a quiet word of thanks to anything that might have been watching, but he creased his brow when he suddenly noticed something odd. Meanwhile, Anabel pulled away and set her new Kasib perfume on the floor, smiling at him, but her own smile faded when she saw the look of concentration on his face.

"Something on your mind, eh?" she asked.

"Yeah…" was his reply, as he pointed up at the chandelier. "The mistletoe's disappeared…" he muttered, and he gave a frightful start when Anabel suddenly burst into laughter, leaning backwards onto the carpet with her hands over her face.

"Of course it's disappeared!" she giggled, sitting upright again. "It was never there to start with!" she pointed out, looking up at the ceiling. "Hey, what the—?!" she gasped, spotting three branches of mistletoe hanging from the chandelier. Quickly counting up the white berries, she gasped again when she saw that there were twenty-three of them, the same number that Ari had told her when she hadn't believed him.

"Where'd that mistletoe come from?" she asked, in a falsely casual voice, as though only slightly surprised at finally seeing it; he had to be joking around; how could he not see it?

"Huh?!" he exclaimed, his head wildly turning from her to the ceiling and back again. "No, that's just the thing; it's _not_ there!" he said loudly, and the Salon Maiden blinked twice, squinting up at the clearly visible branches, before she took several long, deep breaths.

"Maybe it's all the Kasib—aroma?—in the air…" she shrugged. "My head's swimming…"

"Maybe it is that," Ari said vacantly, slowly nodding his head in agreement as he cast his eyes to the ceiling once more. "Y'know…" he muttered, looking lazily around the room, "now might be a good time to get off me," he chuckled quietly, motioning towards Anabel's legs, which were folded on top of his and stopping him from being able to stand; or, at this point, being able to keep any feeling in his own legs at all. But, apparently, she either didn't hear him or didn't care, instead half-closing her eyes and gazing at him with a peculiar expression on her face.

"Anabel?" he mumbled, waving a hand in front of her face, but she didn't even seem to notice. "Are you alright…?" he asked, but then his own eyes drooped, a goofy smile forming on his lips as his head began to loll forwards. "What's going on…?" he whispered, now looking at her stomach, and he slowly wrenched his vision up towards her face. "You look… different, somehow," he noted, and Anabel seemed to smile at the remark.

"I was going to say the same thing about you, actually," she admitted, tilting forwards more and more, until she had to put a hand on his shoulder to stop herself from falling forwards.

"What about you, Stantler?" Ari asked, looking towards the hallway, but Stantler was nowhere to be seen. "Huh…" he grunted, blinking foolishly, "I wonder where she went…"

"I'm right here," said Anabel, giggling softly as she continued to gaze at him with the same daydreaming air as she had before.

"Are we drunk or something?" he wondered aloud, tilting his head towards the ceiling, but when he saw that the mistletoe had mysteriously reappeared to his vision, he was barely fazed by it, instead looking at it as though it were a mildly interesting television show.

"I don't think we are…" Anabel frowned. "It must just be that we're—"

"The mistletoe's back," he smiled, pointing at the berry-laden branches. He felt the weight on his legs shift slightly, but he barely paid any attention to it, knowing that she was probably just stopping herself from falling over again. So he was genuinely surprised when he looked back down and saw that her face was only inches in front of his, her eyes still staring at him from behind half-closed lids, and, for some reason, her lips parted as her eyes flickered onto his.

"The mistletoe never left," she whispered, leaning forwards and softly pressing her mouth against his. As soon as it happened, Ari felt a strong urge to pull away. They were friends, and good friends at that, but why was she doing this? The thought quickly melted away, however, as her lips lifted off his for a fraction of a second before returning, and he felt their softness, tasted their sweetness, and allowed himself to slip into the moment, meeting her kiss without resistance as they simply laid there on the floor.

For Anabel, she wasn't entirely sure why she was doing it, either; she wasn't the spontaneous type, she wasn't the type who suddenly does something out of the blue, like kissing a friend on a snowy night on the lounge room floor. Maybe it was the perfume, something that must have been incredibly expensive for Ari to get, and yet she had nothing to give in return; maybe it was the overwhelming smell of Kasib berries that was coming from his skin, messing with her head; whatever it was, she couldn't help herself, but strangely, she wasn't regretting it in the least.

It wasn't a kiss of passion, and neither was running their hands over the other as they clamoured for more, gasping for breath. They both doubted if it would even qualify for a proper kiss at all; they weren't even moving, simply letting their lips touch and keeping them pressed against the others'. But it didn't feel like a bad thing, so neither felt the need to break away; on the contrary, they were both relaxed, with their eyes closed peacefully and their breath steady, as though it wasn't something out of the ordinary.

After what seemed like several long minutes, Anabel finally pulled away and opened her lilac eyes, watching nervously as she saw Ari's hazel-coloured ones open. "Merry Christmas, Ari…" she said, her voice somewhat squeaky as she gave him a weak but kind smile.

"Uhh…" was all he seemed to be able to say, looking as though he'd been sedated and then electrocuted; he was certainly surprised by what had just happened, but there was a part of him that had liked it. "Umm… thanks, Anabel…" he muttered at last, gulping down a shallow breath. "I'm—I'm speechless!" he laughed. "It's a—uh—it's certainly a—a very unexpected present… I think," he added.

"In that case, you're welcome," Anabel giggled again as she closed her eyes. Taking another deep breath, she opened them again, only for them to narrow unexpectedly when she looked at Ari again. "That's weird…" she muttered, brow creased as Ari took on the same expression, the pair of them looking around the lounge room as though expecting to see something different about it. In fact, the only thing that had changed had been the reappearance of the wild Stantler, the edge of its antlers barely visible in the dim light of the hallway.

"Oh no…" sighed Ari, and her gaze swivelled back to him as he began to blush an intense red.

"What's the matter?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him, but he quickly dismissed it with a wave of his hand.

"It's nothing… never mind. I think the Kasib berries are messing with me as well…" he said quickly, averting his eyes just as hastily as his words tumbled out. The two of them slowly got to their feet – Ari slower than Anabel, spending close to a minute hobbling about on the spot as the blood flow returned to his legs – and exchanged several awkward smiles, Anabel now also blushing furiously as Ari scratched the back of his head and looked at the plastic star on the ground.

"I'm—I'm at a loss at what to do now, to be totally honest—!" he said unabashedly, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb as he turned towards Anabel.

"Well, if it's any consolation…" she murmured, sidling up in front of him as a hand reached down into her pocket, "even if no-one else does—" she pulled out Cherrim's mistletoe and held it above their heads, grinning as she watched Ari's eyes flit from the plant in her hand and back to her face, "I'm glad that _you_ came down the chimney, Ari," she said softly, giving him another small, sweet kiss on the lips.

"Actually, your front door was locked, so—" he started to say, but he cut himself off under her gaze, "I'll take a compliment when I can. Thanks, Ana," he smiled, returning the gesture with a short kiss of his own. "Now, how about I fix you that cup of tea?" he suggested, motioning towards the kitchen.

"On a cold day like this? You bet," she nodded, holding her hands behind her back. "But I saw what happened the last time you '_fixed me a cup of tea_', so _I'll_ put the water on. _You_ need to take a shower, and get rid of that Kasib smell before I start going loopy again," she added in a mock-stern tone, and Ari gave a grunting laugh.

"And here I was, thinking that we were enjoying ourselves," he joked, looking pleased as he saw the blush creep back over Anabel's cheekbones. Turning towards the hallway, she slowly walked out of the lounge room, the faintest hint of a skip in her step as she passed by Stantler and ran a hand over its fur. Once she was out of sight, the Big Horn Pokémon slowly trotted into the room to join Ari, who looked at it in an almost condescending way.

"I saw what you did there," he muttered, pointing an accusing finger at the Stantler, but the wild Pokémon simply licked his finger, joyfully oblivious. "Hmm… maybe I saw what you did, and you didn't do it," he thought aloud, looking at the hallway where Anabel had disappeared from vision. "Either way, I'm onto you," he chuckled, scratching Stantler behind the ears as he headed for the bathroom.


End file.
